Monthly Archives: October 2007

“Come take my hand
You should know me
I’ve always been in your mind
You know I will be kind
I’ll be guiding you
Building your dream
Has to start now
There’s no other road to take
You won’t make a mistake
I’ll be guiding you
You have to believe we are magic
Nothin’ can stand in our way
You have to believe we are magic
Don’t let your aim ever stray
And if all your hopes survive
Destiny will arrive
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you
From where I stand
You are home free
The planets align so rare
There’s promise in the air
And I’m guiding you
Through every turn
I’ll be near you
I’ll come anytime you call
I’ll catch you when you fall
I’ll be guiding you
You have to believe we are magic
Nothin’ can stand in our way
You have to believe we are magic
Don’t let your aim ever stray
And if all your hopes survive
Destiny will arrive
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you
You have to believe we are magic
Nothin’ can stand in our way
You have to believe we are magic
Don’t let your aim ever stray
And if all your hopes survive
Destiny will arrive
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you
I’ll bring all your dreams alive
For you”

Ah yes. Seems like only yesterday Oprah’s Pick-For-Prez could have joined Olivia in a chorus of that classic from the masterpiece that its auteur, Robert Greenwald, for some strange reason would prefer to forget.

But in light of his current — exceptionally lively — output, Mr. Greenwald might consider returning to musical genre to make a film about how the “Magic Negro” has lost his Magic.

“As religious conservatives gather in Washington this weekend for the “Values Voters Summit,” Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced its latest effort to attract people of faith to the campaign: a gospel concert tour.
All three of the dates of the “Embrace the Change” tour are in South Carolina, where Mr. Obama is locked in battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for black voters.
Gospel acts including Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, Byron Cage and the Mighty Clouds of Joy are scheduled to appear.
‘This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level,’ Joshua DuBois, the campaign’s religious affairs director, said in a release. ‘This concert tour is going to bring new people into the political process and engage people of faith in an unprecedented way.’ “

IOW, sell the same old snake-oil in a brand new bottle.

“We checked in with Nate Chinen, a music critic for The Times, for his take on the lineup.
‘I think this tour falls in line with what we know about Obama’s religious history as well as his need to energize a base/community rooted in faith,’ he said. ‘In someone like Hezekiah Walker you have a spiritual leader as well as an artist, and in Donnie McClurkin you have someone who overcame great adversity to become a role model. And of course with the Mighty Clouds of Joy, you have music royalty.’
‘And there’s a bonus,’ Mr. Chinen added. ‘The music is undeniably great.’ “

“Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has detailed his struggle with gay tendencies and vowed to battle “the curse of homosexuality,” said yesterday he’ll perform as scheduled at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, despite controversy over his view that sexuality can be changed by religious intervention.
‘I can’t let off. I didn’t call myself — God called me to do what I do,’ McClurkin told The Post’s Hamil R. Harris. The Grammy winner declared, ‘If this is a war, we are willing to fight. Not a war of violence, but a war of purpose.’
McClurkin wrote on a Christian Web site in 2002 that he struggled with homosexuality after he was molested by male relatives when he was 8 and 13. ‘I’ve been through this and have experienced God’s power to change my lifestyle,’ he wrote. ‘I am delivered and I know God can deliver others, too.’
McClurkin, who said he’s sung for Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, blamed ‘the hatred of a few activists, not the gay community,’ for the flap. ‘They act as if my singing on the ticket is the same as singing at a Nazi rally endorsing Nazism. The bottom line is that I sang at the Democratic convention’ in 1992.”